The Cherry Tree Cafe (18 page)

Clearly he regretted what had passed between us and although I was disappointed, I was still determined to be honest with him. At around three that morning I had decided that I needed to explain
the truth behind my London trip and wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. I knew I didn’t
have
to, but I didn’t want there to be any confusion or doubt over my
commitment to the Cherry Tree.

‘Have you got time for a coffee?’ I asked.

Ben gave his trademark shrug and I went to fill the kettle.

‘Let’s take this down to the garden, shall we?’ I suggested, passing him a tray loaded with the coffee pot, mugs and milk jug.

The spring day was bright and breezy and the air refreshing but warm with the promise of increased heat to come. We sat under the cherry tree with our backs to the Café, safe from prying
eyes and ears.

‘Before we even get into what happened last night,’ I ventured, ‘I want to talk to you about my London trip.’

Ben finished pouring the coffee and passed me my mug.

‘It wasn’t just about the Café was it?’ he said. ‘I didn’t think it was.’

I could already feel my face beginning to colour with shame but I was desperate to completely clear the air that for some reason had been tainted ever since we first met.

I didn’t know if our moment of passion on the sofa would ever lead to anything more but I had to admit, if only to myself, that I still liked Ben a lot and that being honest with him was
paramount. My relationship with Giles had been shrouded in trickery, secrecy and lies from the outset and look how that had turned out. I couldn’t put myself through that kind of deception
again.

‘No,’ I said, ‘it wasn’t just about the Café, although in my defence I did learn a lot the morning I spent with my contact Deborah.’

‘Stop beating about the bush, Lizzie.’ Ben frowned. ‘Why did you really go?’

‘OK,’ I said, taking a deep breath. ‘Before the Café launch I started getting these calls to my mobile. I never answered them and I didn’t recognise the number but
I thought—’

‘You thought it might be Giles,’ Ben interrupted.

‘Yes,’ I admitted, ‘I thought it might be Giles.’

‘So you went to London to find out.’

‘So I went to London to find out.’

‘And was it Giles?’ he demanded bluntly.

‘If you would just let me explain without interrupting!’ I chastised.

Ben lifted his hands in surrender, picked up his mug and sat back in his seat.

‘No,’ I said, ‘it wasn’t Giles.’

Ben raised his eyebrows in surprise but didn’t say anything.

‘It was Natasha,’ I continued, ‘Giles’s fiancée.’

‘How did you find that out?’ Ben rumbled, his vow of silence quickly forgotten as his voice thundered around the garden. ‘How can you be sure it was her?’

‘Henry, my old boss, recognised the number,’ I explained. ‘When I told him the dates of when the calls came through, he told me that during that time Giles had gone
AWOL.’

‘So?’

‘So I guess Natasha assumed he might have been with me. It was only a couple of weeks before their wedding and he already had a track record for disappearing at inopportune moments,
hadn’t he? I mean, a week before their original wedding date was when he hooked up with me the first time.’

‘Did he go back?’ Ben demanded. ‘Did he turn up?’

‘Yes,’ I said, unnerved by Ben’s almost explosive anger. ‘They were on their honeymoon when I stayed with Henry. No one knew where Giles had disappeared to, but Natasha
forgave him and they were married as planned.’

Ben banged his mug back on the tray and quickly stood up. I looked up at him, my hand shielding my eyes from the glare of the sun. Distractedly he ran his hands through his hair. For a moment I
thought he was going to ask how I felt but his expression suggested otherwise.

‘I can’t believe you cared enough to find out,’ he said, staring down at me sternly. He looked repulsed by what I had done. ‘After everything he put you
through.’

‘Neither can I,’ I swallowed, ‘I let my heart rule my head; it was a moment of weakness.’

‘And if it had have been him, then what?’ Ben asked sharply.

I resented his judgemental tone and stood to face him.

‘I don’t know,’ I lied, thinking of my silly plan to lure Giles back to Wynbridge. ‘What would you have done if you thought your girlfriend had been trying to get in
touch with you?’ I snapped. ‘Could you have dismissed her so easily? Would you have listened to your heart, or don’t you have one?’

Ben’s expression was unforgettable and I knew instantly that I had gone too far.

‘Sorry,’ I mumbled, ‘I had no right to say that.’

Ben said nothing.

‘I really am sorry,’ I said again.

Jemma had invited me to lunch the next day and I was hoping to see Ben and apologise again for my despicable comment. Tom’s mum Maureen had also been invited and the plan
was to have an afternoon off from the Café but I reckoned it would be less than half an hour before the conversation took its natural course and led us back through the door.

‘Can you help Ella lay the table?’ Tom asked as soon as I arrived. ‘She can’t manage on her own but she won’t let me help.’

‘He’s in her bad books again,’ Jemma smiled, cuffing him playfully with the oven gloves.

‘Not another row about a canine companion, is it?’

‘Yes,’ said Tom wearily, ‘she’s trying to use the fact that we’re busy with work and the Café as leverage now.’

‘But surely she understands there’s no one here all day to look after a dog?’

‘Nope, according to Ella a dog would fill the gap in her life that her working parents can no longer fill.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I see.’

I took the proffered basket of cutlery and headed into the dining room to help my wayward goddaughter.

‘Did you have a dog when you were little?’ was her opening gambit.

‘Nope, sorry,’ I said, ‘you’re out of luck trying me. I didn’t have so much as a goldfish.’

‘How come?’

‘Because pets are smelly, noisy, messy things,’ I told her.

‘No they’re not!’

‘I know that,’ I said, ‘but that’s what my mum always used to say.’

Ella didn’t say anything else. Clearly I wasn’t worth investing any more time in.

‘Hang on, chick, you haven’t laid enough places,’ I told her as I counted the haphazardly laid placemats. ‘We’re one short.’

‘No we’re not!’ Ella scowled, marching around the table tapping every setting and announcing who it belonged to.

‘You’ve missed Ben out,’ I said, ‘or has he been naughty and has to eat in his room?’

‘He’s not here.’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘OK.’

‘He’s gone to Spain,’ Ella announced.

‘Of course he hasn’t,’ I laughed, thinking Ella had misunderstood. She had a reputation for misinterpreting information gleaned whilst eavesdropping.

‘He has,’ she insisted, pouting and folding her arms. ‘Daddy took him to the airport last night. Didn’t you, Daddy?’ she asked innocently, batting her eyelashes at
her father who had just come in with assorted plates and bowls.

‘Didn’t Daddy what?’ he asked hesitantly.

‘Take Ben to the airport, of course!’

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I did.’

‘There!’ said Ella. ‘I told you, Lizzie, he’s gone to Spain.’

I didn’t know what to say. I stood and stared at the pair of them, the cutlery I was supposed to be setting frozen in midair. Suddenly I felt very hot, my heart was hammering and I could
feel hot stinging tears pricking the back of my eyes.

Why hadn’t he told me?

‘He’s gone to stay with his dad,’ Tom frowned. ‘Surely he told you? He said he was going to tell you.’

I shook my head.

‘He said he had some stuff to think through, that he needed a bit of space to come to terms with a few things.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I smiled.

Tom opened his mouth to say something else but I cut him off.

‘It really doesn’t matter,’ I said again but rather too brightly this time, ‘I’m not his keeper. It’s not up to me whether he stays or goes.’

I began carefully laying out the cutlery again and Tom bent down and scooped Ella up in his arms.

‘Come on,’ he said, jiggling her up and down and giving me a sidelong glance, ‘come and be my lookout for Nanny Maureen.’

I knew I had no real reason to resent Ben leaving, that there was nothing real, nothing tangible between us that meant he
had
to stay, but nonetheless his disappearance
wormed its way into my ego and steadily chipped away at my already fragile self-cnfidence. Frustratingly his absence from the pub in the evenings also took the edge off my willingness to carry on
with my shifts and, coupled with my desire to focus on the sewing courses, it wasn’t many days after he went that I made my excuses and resigned.

‘We’re really sorry to see you go,’ Evelyn told me as we cleared away after my last shift, ‘but I’m pleased about the Café. It’s good that you and
Jemma have found a way to realise your dreams. Too many people forget what they started out wanting or lose faith and give up. I’m really proud of you, Lizzie. You’ve both worked really
hard and Tom, of course. I hope it’s a huge success for all of you.’

‘Thanks, Evelyn,’ I smiled, ‘so do I.’

As Deborah suggested, I had signed up to an online small business start-up course and told myself, as I worked steadily through the information, that running another session was the
real
reason why I was giving up the shifts in the pub. I had a nice little nest egg sitting in the bank so money wasn’t a problem and I knew that being able to dedicate all my time to the new
venture was a total luxury. I didn’t mention my tumultuous feelings about Ben Fletcher to anyone.

‘So I guess I’ll see you Friday then,’ Evelyn said as she began cashing up. ‘Are you fully booked?’

‘No, not yet,’ I told her. ‘There’s still room for a couple more people, but I’m not too worried if all the spaces aren’t taken. To be honest I hadn’t
been expecting to run another session so soon!’

‘So who has signed up so far?’

‘Well there’s Helen, of course,’ I explained. ‘She missed out first time round because her son was sick. She was the person who asked if I’d consider running it
again, actually. Apparently Sarah and Rachel haven’t stopped going on about how much fun they had. Then there’s a lady called Angela, she was on the first course and enjoyed it so much
that she wanted to come again.’

‘Sounds like you made quite an impression!’ Evelyn laughed.

‘Then there’s a woman called Alison,’ I continued, ‘but I’ve no idea who she is.’

‘Oh, that’ll be Ali Fletcher,’ Evelyn nodded, ‘she’s the only Alison round here.’

‘Ali who?’

‘Fletcher,’ Evelyn said again. ‘Ben’s mum. I dare say she’s missing him now he’s rushed off to be with his father and you never know, what with her being such
an old gossip,’ she said, eyeing me astutely, ‘we might even find out why he went off in such a hurry.’

‘Oh, I’m sure he had his reasons,’ I said evasively.

‘Well anyway,’ Evelyn laughed, thankfully abandoning the subject, ‘I’m not so sure you’ll be able to get me to sew in a straight line, but we’ll give it a go.
I’ve been meaning to find a way of doing something with this place for ages,’ she said, looking around her, ‘but I never seem to have the time. Some of that bunting stuff will be
lovely strung around the bar. I want rectangles though,’ she added fiercely, ‘and nothing frilly!’

‘Lizzie!’

‘What?’

‘There’s someone to see you!’

‘Can they come back later?’

‘No! Hurry up will you?’

Of all the mornings to be running late, and now I had a visitor to contend with on top of everything else. So far I was managing to keep my nerves in check this time around and I felt barely a
flicker as my mind ran through the plans for the session. No, now it was something else that was causing me problems and typically, on the one morning I couldn’t afford to, I’d
overslept.

‘Who is it?’ I hissed as I thundered down the stairs and through the beaded curtain that separated home from work.

‘Oh, hello.’

I stopped in my tracks as I came face to face with Jay, the journalist from the Café launch.

‘Hello, Lizzie,’ he smiled disarmingly, ‘you never called.’

‘I’ve been busy,’ I told him, brushing past and scowling at Jemma for good measure.

‘I asked Tom for your number,’ Jay continued, following doggedly on behind, ‘but he wouldn’t give it to me.’

‘I should think not!’ I snapped. ‘I don’t know you from Adam. You could be a stalker or a complete psycho for all I know.’

‘But I’m not,’ he grinned. ‘You know I’m not.’

‘Look, I’m sorry, but I’m really busy. Was there something in particular you wanted? I have a group this afternoon and loads to do.’ I knew I sounded rude, but I was
cross.

I could see Jemma and Tom peeping through from the kitchen like a couple of kids and I guessed that they had set this meeting up. Unwittingly they were offering me Jay as a Ben alternative, but
I had no desire to compromise.

‘Jemma told me you’d decided to go ahead with the sewing sessions,’ Jay explained. ‘She showed me the photos from the other Friday.’

‘What photos?’ I frowned. ‘I didn’t take any photographs.’

‘These,’ he grinned, lifting a large parcel on to the table and effectively stopping me from carrying on setting out the materials for the afternoon.

‘What’s this?’

I pointed. ‘Open it,’ he smiled.

‘Tell me again,’ I frowned, ‘why exactly are you here?’

‘Just open it,’ he laughed, his bright blue eyes sparkling mischievously.

It was the only way I was going to get rid of him, so I tore off the paper and gasped in surprise. I’d been meaning to ask Jemma what had happened to the cherry cupcake design I’d
created and here it was, beautifully displayed in a pine box frame with a pastel pink mount, the photos of the first bunting session artfully arranged around it.

‘Oh my god!’ I laughed, my hands flying up to cover my face. ‘That’s amazing!’

Jemma and Tom came rushing out of the kitchen to join us.

‘That looks fantastic, mate!’ Tom beamed, slapping Jay on the back and shaking his hand.